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Larry Vuckovich

This show was on Oct 5th, 2013
| 10 people watched

Bio

Piano jazz legend Barry Harris has called Larry Vuckovich one of the premier West Coast pianists. Larry took his Jazz-Latin Trio/Quartet to the East Coast recently for a performance at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club in New York, in the format featured on his two latest recordings, High Wall: Real Life Film Noir and Street Scene, on his own Tetrachord Music label. Both CDs placed in the Top 10...
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Piano jazz legend Barry Harris has called Larry Vuckovich one of the premier West Coast pianists. Larry took his Jazz-Latin Trio/Quartet to the East Coast recently for a performance at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club in New York, in the format featured on his two latest recordings, High Wall: Real Life Film Noir and Street Scene, on his own Tetrachord Music label. Both CDs placed in the Top 10 of the JazzWeek national radio reporting charts, and are heard regularly on XM Satellite Radio. While there, he performed with Marian McPartland on her Piano Jazz show, heard on NPR national and global outlets. Larry is an acclaimed solo concert pianist - having performed at the Fazioli piano series in New York, Chicago and San Francisco - as well as a leader of an 18-piece big band that sold out the 600-seat 2007 Filoli summer jazz show in Woodside, CA.

The dynamic, highly versatile pianist has performed with top players from various jazz influences, including: Dexter Gordon, Philly Joe Jones, Mel Tormé, Don Byas, Jon Hendricks, and Red Norvo to today’s artists: Charlie Haden, Bobby Hutcherson, Bobby McFerrin, Tom Harrell, and Charles McPherson. He led the house trio at the famed Keystone Korner in San Francisco, from 1978 to 1983, before leaving for the exciting New York jazz scene of the ‘80s. He appeared at the Village Vanguard, Blue Note, and Bradley’s, with premier East Coast musicians Billy Higgins, Cecil Payne, Al Cohn, Curtis Fuller, Milt Hilton, Mel Lewis, among others, receiving top critical reviews.

The New York Times notes that his unique outlook and collection of influences set him apart from most pianists who are heard regularly in New York. The Village Voice says he has a book of piano gems that will keep you guessing. The Toronto Globe and Mail calls him a musician who sits apart from the rest by virtue of his taste for the exotic and the exquisite. Larry presents a wide-ranging program of swing, bebop/post-bop, contemporary jazz, blues-funk, Afro-Cuban, salsa and Brazilian music. Gary Giddins in The Village Voice named Blue Balkan: Then & Now, a reissue with added material, of Larry’s pioneering 1980 jazz/world music recording, one of the top CDs of 2002.

The Montenegrin-born, San Francisco-raised pianist returned to the Bay Area in 1990 to play and direct music at the Grand Hyatt’s Club 36, where he presented popular jazz shows, featuring local and touring celebrities, and hosted the venue as part of the San Francisco Jazz Festival. He became music director of the West Coast Jazz Festival and the Napa Valley Jazz Festival, and brought his bands to Monterey, San Francisco and San Jose jazz festivals. He has presented concerts at such noted Bay Area venues as Yoshi’s in San Francisco and Oakland, Jazz at Pearl’s, The Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society’s Douglas Beach House, Pacifica Performances, Herbst Theater, Palo Alto Jazz Alliance, Lincoln Theater, COPIA, and Napa Valley Opera House. www.larryvuckovich.com